TRANSPORT QUESTION

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 15, 17 July 1929, Page 4

TRANSPORT QUESTION

MORNINGTON'S CLAIMS

COUNCIL TO BE PETITIONED

A special general meeting of the Vogcl-to-,vu and Moruington Municipal Electors' Association was held in the Ridgway .School, Mornington, on Tuesday. 3lr. •J. Staples was in the chair. There was an attendance of some sixty members, aud other interested local residents.

The purpose of the meeting was to register an emphatic protest against the City Council's refusal to improve in any way the existing bus service in the district, or to consider the extension of the tram service to Mornington.

The chairman of the Civic League, Mr. J. N. Wallace, and members of his executive were also present.

Outlining the facts of the position, the honorary secretary, Mr. F. D. O'Halloran, said that the completion of the New road to serve as a tram route to Mornington had been advocated as early as 1914. Ultimately an amount for that purpose was included in the loan schedule of 1920, and the work was commenced in 1921. Since that time it had been impossible to ascertain the exact amount expended on the road out of the loan in question. For example, in March, 1924, a local deputation to the City Council contended that a large sum had been expended on the road from the funds raised for the relief of unemployment, exclusive altogether of loan moneys. At that time it appeared that the Works Committee regarded the work as a tram route, and not as a road. There was no doubt that the road was still in an incomplete and dangerous condition, although the original vote had been for a completed tram route. It was just possible that there might be further funds available from the 1920 street works loan, although at its last meeting the City Council had decided to do nothing further to the road at present.

Subsequently, in 1926, a private bus company offered the district a bus service, subject to the grant of a licence from the City Council. Satisfactory arrangements with the council, however, could not be made, but as the result of considerable public pressure a "skeleton" municipal.bus service from Brooklyn was finally instituted in May, .1928, to serve as a "feeder" to this tram service. Since that time tho growth of the district had been most pronounced, but the council had made no effort whatsoever to capture the increased traffic available. Numerous suggested improvements, relating to concession fares, more frequent day trips in the "rush" hours, evening and holiday services, and so forth, had all been definitely refused. The present meeting had been called to give adequate expression to the well-found-ed public indignation current in the dis:trict. Other- districts were being most liberally catered for by both bus and tram. The question of .some.form of concession' bus-aud-trara. ticket was particularly pressing, as residents were at present paying 9d to lOd per day for a return three-sec-tion trip to the General Post Office, which should be available by the universal, fare for not more than 6d. A return trip fromi Mornington to Lambton Station—a matter of t irom 3V_ to ± miles—cost at. present Is 2d cash.

Mr. J. N. Wallace, chairman of the Civic League, stated the attitude of his organisation towards civic transport in general. The council had apparently not made genuine effort to develop a definite bus policy as such, and the league had secured an exhaustive report which waa shortly to be fully considered by representatives of: both parties. The only satisfactory solution appeared to be the appointment of a manager who should be solely responsible for bus services. /Mr. S. E. Lambert, chairman o£. the Northland Progressive Association, gave .a brief account of the long struggle which his association had had to secure adequate transport in their district, and recommended that local residents concentrate on the extension of the tram service to Mornington, In his considered opinion, the day ■of the tram waR far from bciiiff over. After full discussion, ifc was resolved that n full canvass of the district be made for signatures to a petition to the City Coun■cil'for the extension of the tram service to Mornington via tho route originally promised in 1913.